This monument at Winter Quarters, Neb., was erected by Jesse Knight for his father, Newel Knight, and others who died at the Ponca camp.

Essentials
Born: 13 September 1800; Marlborough, Windham County, Vermont
Baptized: May 1830
Son of: Joseph KNIGHT Sr. and Polly PECK
Married: 1. Sally COLBURN, 7 June 1825; 2. Lydia GOLDTHWAITE; 23 November 1835; Kirtland, Lake, Ohio
Died: 11 January 1847; (on Plains to Utah) Fort Neobrara, Ponca Camp, Nebraska

Page contents
One-minute history
Doctrine and Covenants 54
Susan Easton Black article
Parley P. Pratt account

External links
Joseph and Polly Knight Family Organization
Autobiography of Newel Knight

BY DARYL JAMES
FROM 'JAMES/HATCH ONE MINUTE HISTORIES' (1994)
     Newel (sometimes spelled with two l's) Knight was born Sept. 13, 1800, in Marlborough, Vermont, but moved with his family at 9 to Bainbridge, N.Y.
     Two years later Newel moved again with his family to Colesville, N.Y., where he remained 19 years.
     "My father (Joseph Knight Sr.) owned a farm, grist mill and carding machine,'' Newel writes. "The business in which my father was engaged often required him to have hired help, and among the many he from time to time employed was a young man by the name of Joseph Smith Jr., to whom I was particularly attached.''
     On June 7, 1825, Newel married Sally Colburn. The couple stayed near Newel's father's farm in Colesville and were frequently visited by this friend, Joseph Smith. "(Joseph) would frequently entertain us with accounts of the wonderful things which had happened to him, and we were deeply impressed with the truthfulness of his statements concerning the plates of The Book of Mormon which had been shown to him by an angel of the Lord,'' Newel writes.
     Less than a week after The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was organized, Joseph asked Newel to pray at the first public discourse of the Church. Newel agreed but, when the time arrived, was overcome with a great fear which prevented him. That night, on April 11, 1830, in Fayette, N.Y., Newel retired privately to the woods to pray for a manifestation of the Lord's will for him. Again, Newel was unable to pray and soon was possessed by a devil. By the time he returned home his limbs were twisted out of shape; finally, he began to be thrown around the room. Sally called for Joseph. When the Prophet arrived he cast out the devil in the name of Christ. Newel reported he saw the devil pass through the ceiling as it left his body. This exorcism was known as the first miracle of the Church, and Newel was baptized soon afterward.
     Persecutions arose in the area against Joseph and soon the Prophet was arrested on false charges. Newel's father obtained a lawyer for the Prophet, and Newel testified in the trial. The prosecutor asked Newel if "Joe Smith" had power to cast out devils, and Newel replied: "No, nor does any other mortal. But Christ has the power and can use Joseph Smith as His instrument when He so chooses.'' Newel labored as a missionary with Hyrum Smith and Orson Pratt in the fall of 1830.
     In April 1831, members of the Colesville Branch (with Newel as leader) left their homes and started for Kirtland, Ohio. After being pushed by mobs from Ohio to Missouri and then back to Ohio, Sally caught malaria and died in a rainstorm in 1834, after giving birth to a son, who also died. Newel returned to Kirtland, where he eventually met and married Lydia Goldthwaite. The ceremony was performed by the Prophet on Nov. 24, 1835. Newel had been working on the Kirtland Temple, and after its dedication he returned with Lydia to a home in Clay County, Mo. They were later among the first to settle Nauvoo, Ill., and among the first to head west to Utah. Newel was appointed a captain of 50, but died on the trail in Nebraska Jan. 11, 1847, at age 46.

-- Sources: 1. Lydia Knight's History: The First Book of the Noble Women's Lives Series. Juvenile Instructor Office, Salt Lake City, 1883. (On record at Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University; Provo, Utah.) 2. The Jesse Knight Family: Jesse Knight, His Forbears and Family, by J. William Knight. The Deseret News Press, 1940. (On record at Harold B. Lee Library, BYU, Provo, Utah.) 3. "The Knight Family: Ever Faithful to the Prophet," by William G. Hartley. The Ensign of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, January 1989, pps. 43-49.

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This is the house of Newel Knight in Nauvoo before the waters of a down stream dam covered it.

Doctrine and Covenants 54

Revelation given through Joseph Smith the Prophet to Newel Knight, at Kirtland, Ohio, June 1831. HC 1: 180-181. Members of the Church in the branch at Thompson, Ohio, were divided on questions having to do with the consecration of properties. Selfishness and greed were manifest, and Leman Copley had broken his covenant to consecrate his large farm as a place of inheritance for the saints arriving from Colesville, New York. Ezra Thayre was also involved in the controversy. As a consequence, Newel Knight (president of the branch at Thompson) and other elders had come to the Prophet asking how to proceed. The Prophet inquired of the Lord and received this revelation. See also Section 56, which is a continuation of the matter.
     Behold, thus saith the Lord, even Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, even he who was crucified for the sins of the world --
     2 Behold, verily, verily, I say unto you, my servant Newel Knight, you shall stand fast in the office whereunto I have appointed you.
     3 And if your brethren desire to escape their enemies, let them repent of all their sins, and become truly humble before me and contrite.
     4 And as the covenant which they made unto me has been broken, even so it has become void and of none effect.
     5 And wo to him by whom this offense cometh, for it had been better for him that he had been drowned in the depth of the sea.
     6 But blessed are they who have kept the covenant and observed the commandment, for they shall obtain mercy.
     7 Wherefore, go to now and flee the land, lest your enemies come upon you; and take your journey, and appoint whom you will to be your leader, and to pay moneys for you.
     8 And thus you shall take your journey into the regions westward, unto the land of Missouri, unto the borders of the Lamanites.
     9 And after you have done journeying, behold, I say unto you, seek ye a living like unto men, until I prepare a place for you.
     10 And again, be patient in tribulation until I come; and, behold, I come quickly, and my reward is with me, and they who have sought me early shall find rest to their souls. Even so. Amen.

Other scriptural references to Newel Knight:
D&C 52:32 to be ordained and to journey to Missouri;
D&C 56:6-7 original commandment to, revoked because of people's stiffneckedness;
D&C sec. 72 revelation making known the calling of;
D&C 124:32 member of high council.

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Friend of the Prophet

BY SUSAN EASTON BLACK
FROM WHO'S WHO IN THE DOCTRINE AND COVENANTS
SALT LAKE CITY: BOOKCRAFT, INC. (1997) PP. 168-171
     Newel Knight settled near his father in Colesville, New York, and operated a carding machine business and a gristmill. “Peace, prosperity and plenty, seemed to crown our labors, and indeed we were a happy family, and my father rejoiced in having us around him,: wrote Newel. In 1826 Joseph Smith boarded with the Knight family. “I was particularly attached (to Joseph),” penned Newel. “We were deeply impressed with the truthfulness of his statements concerning the Plates of the Book of Mormon which had been shown him by an Angel of the Lord.”
     As the Prophet visited with the Knight family in April 1830, he noticed Newel’s hesitation to vocally pray. Joseph encouraged him, but Newel’s attempt while alone in the woods was unsuccessful. When he returned home, the experience triggered a violent physical struggle. The Prophet Joseph, who was summoned to the scene by Newel’s alarmed wife, found that Newel’s facial appearance and limbs had become “distorted and twisted in every shape,” and his body was finally “caught up off the floor...and tossed about most fearfully.” Newel pleaded with the Prophet to cast the devil out of him, to which the Prophet replied, “If you know that I can, it shall be done.” He commanded the devil in the name of Jesus Christ to depart, and miraculously Newel’s body returned to normal. Newel saw the devil leave him and vanish from sight.
     As he rested from the ordeal, a vision of the heavens caused him to levitate: “I now began to feel a most pleasing sensation resting upon me, and immediately the visions of heaven were opened to my view. I felt myself attracted upward,...I found that the Spirit of the Lord had actually caught me up off the floor, and that my shoulder and head were pressing against the beams.”
     Newel was baptized in May 1830 at the Whitmer farm. He declared that during the first conference of the Church, held the next month, “I saw the heavens opened, I beheld the Lord Jesus Christ seated at the right hand of the Majesty of High.” As the year of 1830 ended he wrote, “Great things have transpired, too great for pen to paint.”
     In obedience to the Lord’s command given in January 1 831 to gather in Ohio, Newel and other Saints, “having made the best arrangements we could for the journey, ... bade adieu to all we held dear on this earth: except the few who had embraced the gospel. Soon after arriving in Thompson, near Kirtland, he was called to serve a mission with Selah J. Griffin (see D&C 52:32). The mission was canceled when difficulties arose in Thompson, where Newel was serving as branch president. The Lord instructed Newel and the Saints in the branch to “go to now and flee the land, lest your enemies come upon you; and take your journey...into the regions westward, unto the land of Missouri, unto the borders of the Lamanites” (D&C 54:7-8).
     In compliance with the revelation Newel Knight led the branch members to Jackson County; Missouri. In April 1833 he was called to be a counselor to Bishop Isaac Morley. This call was brief, as mobocracy forced him to flee to Clay County. There, in September 1834, his wife Sally died. Newel wrote, “Truly she died a martyr to the gospel of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. She was of a frail constitution, and the hardships and privations she had to endure were more than she could survive.”
     In sorrow Newel returned to Kirtland in May 1835. During his months in Kirtland he developed a romantic interest in Lydia Goldthwaite Bailey. She refused his advances as she was still married to Mr. Bailey. Newel apologized but explained that legally she was no longer married since her husband had deserted her over three years before. Lydia believed that to marry under the circumstances, if legally right, was morally wrong. The Prophet intervened and married Lydia and Newel on 24 November 1835.
     Newel and his bride remained in Kirkland until the temple was dedicated, and he “received my annointings, and was also a witness to the great manifestations of God’s power in the sacred edifice.” They then migrated to Far West, where Newel was called to serve on the high council. Persecution grew in intensity, and Newel wrote, “We calmly submitted to the numerous indignities heaped upon us...Our people made many concessions to the mob in the hope of pacifying them, but it was useless.” He joined in the defense of Far West but to no avail, as it was overrun by men he labeled “Boggs Butchers.”
     Amid these trying times he was privileged to greet the Prophet after his return from Missouri jails. “I can never describe my feelings on meeting with him,” he wrote, “and shaking hands with one whom I had so long and so dearly loved, his worth and his sufferings filled my heart with mingled emotions.” In January 1843 the Prophet wrote “Newel Knight and Joseph Knight, Junior, whose names I will record in the Book of the Law of the Lord with unspeakable delight, for they are my friends.”
     After the Martyrdom Newel penned his feelings for the Prophet and his brother Hyrum: “O how I loved those men, and rejoiced under their teachings! It seems as if all is gone, and as if my very heart strings will break, and were it not for my beloved wife and dear children I feel as if I have nothing to live for, and would rejoice to be with them in the Courts of Glory.” One year and d day after their deaths Newel and Lydia visited Carthage Jail to see the room where the Martyrdom took place. Blood still stained the floor and bullet holes pocked the walls.
     Continuing bigotry and mobocracy forced Newel and his family to abandon Nauvoo and join the migrating Saints in Iowa Territory. On 1 January 1847 he seemed to sense that his death was near: “I scarcely know why I am thus anxious, why this world appears so trifling, or the things of the world. I almost desire to leave this tenement of clay, that my spirit may soar aloft and no longer be held in bondage, yet my helpless family seem to need my protection.”
     Three days later Newel wrote his last diary entry. He described his preaching in church that day of the Saints; need to purify themselves so that “the Lord’s presence (will) go before us, while we are journeying in the wilderness.” He died on 11 January 1847 from lung inflammation. His remains were placed in a lumber coffin fashioned from a wagon box. Because of the cold, the fingers and feet of the men digging his grave froze.
     Lydia, a widow with seven young children, wondered why he had left her. According to her history: "As she spoke, he stood by her side, with a lovely smile on his face, and said: “Be calm, let not sorrow overcome you. It was necessary that I should go. I was needed behind the veil to represent the true condition of this camp and people. You cannot fully comprehend it now; but the time will come when you shall know why I left you and our little ones. Therefore, dry up your tears. Be patient, I will go before you and protect you in your journeyings. And you and your little ones shall never perish for lack of food.”

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Miraculous conversion

BY PARLEY P. PRATT
FROM AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF PARLEY P. PRATT
SALT LAKE CITY: DESERET BOOK CO. (1938 AND 1985) PP. 54-56
     I tarried mostly with a branch of the Church commonly called the Colesville branch. They had removed from Colesville, in the state of New York, and settled on the boundaries which divide the state of Missouri from the Indian Territory. They consisted of about sixty souls, and were under the presidency of a faithful and zealous Elder by the name of Newel Knight--an account of whose miraculous conversion we here record, as extracted from the life of Joseph Smith, published in the Millennial Star, Vol. 4, p. 116:
     During this month of April, I (Joseph Smith) went on a visit to the residence of Mr. Joseph Knight, of Colesville, Broom County, N.Y., with whom his family and I had been previously acquainted, and whose name I have above mentioned as having been so kind and thoughtful towards us while translating the Book of Mormon. Mr. Knight and his family were Universalists; but were willing to reason with me upon my religious views, and were, as usual, friendly and hospitable. We held several meetings in the neighborhood; we had many friends and some enemies. Our meeting were well attended, and many began to pray fervently to Almighty God that He would give them wisdom to understand the truth. Among those who attended our meetings regularly was Newel Knight, son of Joseph Knight. He and I had many serious conversations of the important subject of man’s eternal salvation. We were in the habit of praying much at our meetings, and Newel had said that he would try and take up his cross and pray vocally during meeting; but when we again met together he rather excused himself. I tried to prevail upon him, making use of the figure, supposing that he should get into a mud hole would he not try to help himself out? And that we were willing now to help him out of the mud hole. He replied, ‘that provided he had got into a mud hole through carelessness, he would rather wait and get out himself than have others to help him, and so he would wait until he should get into the woods by himself and there he would pray.’
     Accordingly he deferred praying until next morning, when he retired unto the woods, where, according to his own account afterwards, he made several attempts to pray, but could scarcely do so--feeling that he had not done his duty, but that he should have prayed in the presence of others. He began to feel uneasy, and continued to feel worse both in mind and body until, upon reaching his own house, his appearance was such as to alarm his wife very much. He requested her to go and bring me to him. I went and found him suffering very much in his mind, and his body acted upon in a very strange manner. His visage and limbs distorted and twisted in every shape and appearance possible to imagine; and finally, he was caught up off the floor of the apartment and tossed about most fearfully.
     His situation was soon made known to his neighbors and relatives, and in a short time as many as eight or nine grown persons had got together to witness the scene. After he had thus suffered for a time, I succeeded in getting hold of him by the hand, when almost immediately he spoke to me, and with very great earnestness requested of me that I should cast the devil out of him; saying, ‘that he knew that he was in him, and that he also knew that I could cast him out.’
     I replied, ‘if you know that I can it shall be done,’ and then, almost unconsciously, I rebuked the devil, and commanded him in the name of Jesus Christ to depart from him; when immediately Newel spoke out and said, ‘that he saw the devil leave him and vanish from his sight.’
     “The scene was now entirely changed; for as soon as the devil had departed from our friend his countenance became natural; his distortions of body ceased; and almost immediately the Spirit of the Lord descended upon him, and the visions of eternity were opened to his view. He afterwards related his experience as follows:
     ‘I now began to feel a most pleasing sensation resting upon me, and immediately the visions of Heaven were opened to my view. I felt myself attracted upward, and remained for some time enrapt in contemplation, insomuch that I knew not what was going on in the room. By-and-by I felt some weight pressing upon my shoulder and the side of my head, which served to recall me to a sense of my situation, and I found that the Spirit of the Lord had actually caught me up off the floor, and that my shoulder and head were pressing against the beams.’
     “All this was witnessed by many, to their great astonishment and satisfaction, when they saw the devil thus cast out and the power of God and His Holy Spirit thus made manifest. So soon as consciousness returned, his bodily weakness was such that we were obliged to lay him upon his bed and wait upon him for some time. As may be expected, such a scene as this contributed much to make believers of those who witnessed it; and, finally, the greater part of them became members of the Church.”

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Lydia GOLDTHWAITE
Joseph KNIGHT Sr.
Newel KNIGHT
Sally KNIGHT
Polly PECK

CHILDREN WITH SALLY COLBURN

CHILDREN WITH LYDIA GOLDTHWAITE